Pakistani ex-President Musharraf charged with high treason

A Pakistani court has charged former President Pervez Musharraf with treason for implementing emergency rule and suspending the constitution in 2007. Musharraf has already been found guilty of the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

If convicted of the charges he could face the death penalty.
Musharraf has pleaded not guilty and claims the charges are
politically-motivated.

Judge Tahira Safdar read out the five charges in the hearing
which included treason for subverting the constitution and
instituting emergency rule in Pakistan in 2007. Musharraf
defended himself in the court hearing and made a speech in which
he named himself a patriot and said he had acted within the
constitution when he declared a state of emergency.
"I am being called a traitor, I have been chief of army staff for
nine years and I have served this army for 45 years. I have
fought two wars and it is 'treason'?" he told the court. His
lawyer later asked for permission for Musharraf to be exempt from
house arrest to visit his ailing mother in Dubai.

Musharraf tendered his resignation as president in 2008 because
of mounting charges against him by the Pakistani opposition. He
then fled into exile in London for four years, returning to
Pakistan in March last year with the intention of running in
elections.

However, in his absence the Pakistani government had issued
warrants for his arrest in connection with the murder of former
Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf was barred from
running in the elections.

The former president was indicted for the murder of Bhutto in
August of last year. Then-opposition leader Benazir Bhutto was
killed in December 2007 during a political rally in the city of
Rawalpindi by a suicide bomber. The judge ruled that Musharraf
was complicit in her murder because he had not provided adequate
security during the rally.

Musharraf’s trial has been dogged with delays since it began last
November. Initially the former president refused to present
himself at a hearing after it was found that incendiary devices
had been planted along the road to the court. In addition, he was
taken to hospital with chest pains on the way to court at the
beginning of January.